I've Changed
by Trust.Hope.Love
Summary: Santana's been in NYC since Finn outed her to their high school and the whole of Ohio almost four years ago. Dani/Santana. Dantana.


**Title: **I've Changed  
**Summary:** Santana's been in NYC since Finn outed her to their high school and the whole of Ohio almost four years ago.  
**Pairing:** Santana/Dani. Dantana.  
**Rating:** PG13 (I think…I'm still deciding.)  
**AN: **Here's my first Dantana fic. I hope you enjoy it. :)

Santana has been in NYC for almost four years and has been dating Dani for a little over three years. The two girls met their first semester at NYU in one of their classes. They had to do a group project for their music theory class and hit it off. They are now finishing their junior year. They are majoring in Music – Performance, Music – Composition and Production, and Music Education.

Santana left Lima and everything behind after Finn outed her to their high school and the entire state of Ohio. Her family has an apartment in NYC, Manhattan, which her parents eventually signed over to her after she graduated from high school three years ago. She finished out her senior year of high school in NYC. Then she spent the summer working at a café near her apartment before the school year for NYU began in the fall.

Of course, her parents could've forced her to come home, but they knew that wasn't what she needed. She needed space and time away from Lima and her "friends" from glee. They visit when they can, Skype every day, and Maribel hired a house manager and driver to keep an eye on Santana.

Then when Dani moved in with Santana during their first semester at NYU, the Lopez's convinced Dani's parents to look out for Santana too. Dani briefly lived in the dorms, but something got lost in registration and she was roomed with a guy. So, she lived with her parents while the school tried to sort things out, but there was nothing else available. She'd resigned herself to commuting an hour one way every day, but then she'd met Santana and they hit it off immediately. She moved in after a week of knowing each other.

Santana's parents have finally convinced her to come home for Christmas this year (2015), and Santana almost begs Dani to come with her after getting off the phone with her mother that early October evening. Her parents usually come out to New York, but this year her dad has some work things he has to do just before and after Christmas so they can't come to New York.

"Baby, please?" Santana asks with a slight pout. "I can't go back there alone. I...it..." Santana struggles to find the right words, looking at ground shaking her head sadly.

Dani listens to her girlfriend and any doubt she had was now gone. "Tana, it's okay. You don't have to go back alone, okay?" Dani says softly, wrapping her arms around the taller girl's waist. "I'll call my parents and we can celebrate before or after Christmas. It doesn't matter. They'll understand." She says with a shrug.

"No. No. I'm sorry. I...I can't be that selfish." Santana says shaking her head. "Of course you have to be with your family." She states resolutely.

"Baby." Dani says softly, squeezing her sides a little trying to get Santana to look at her. "Tana, look at me." She says a little louder. "Please?" She asks with a pout, and Santana finally looks up and meets her eyes. "It's fine." She states. "Okay?"

Dani waits for acknowledgement that Santana hears what she's saying. "Please listen to me. I know Christmas is about family, love, and Jesus. You are part of my family and I love you. I'm not going to leave you all alone when you need me the most. I. Love. You." Dani repeats. "My parents and sisters know that. I'll just explain that you need me, and they'll be fine. It's never been about the day for us, just about the season and remembering what it's all about. We can do Thanksgiving with them or something. Okay?" She asks as she sees Santana's eyes start to glisten.

Santana nods once. "Okay." She whispers emotionally. "I love you so much." She says brokenly as a few tears fall. "Thank you." She whispers before leaning in to capture the blonde's lips in a brief loving kiss.

At least it was supposed to brief, just for Santana to show her thanks. It quickly heated up though with lips parting, tongues dancing, and hands wandering leading to their clothes falling to the floor. Dani wanted to give her girlfriend all the love she could to reassure her, and Santana needed to feel the reassurance that she isn't alone, that she's loved wholly and completely.

Later, they lay in bed tangled together, as they often are, talking quietly.

"What can I do? How can I help you?" Dani asks her right hand stroking the brunette's side comfortingly.

Santana stops Dani's hand in its tracks and intertwines their fingers resting their hands over her heart. "Just...love me." She shrugs. "Reassure me. Just...be here." She shakes her head. "When we do get to Lima, remember who I am right here and now. Know that...I've changed and I'm not that person any more, even if I relapse for a little while." She says as her voice begins to crack. "Damn it!" She says swiping under her eyes with their entwined hands.

"Hey." Dani says squeezing their entwined hands and Santana's side that's lying on her arm. "I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm here. For whatever and whenever, for however long you'll have me." Dani reassures. "I know who you are." She confirms. "I know change takes time, and sometimes in order to fully move on a relapse happens when confronted with the past." She shrugs and shakes her head. "That doesn't change who you are." She looks into Santana's eyes deeply, making sure she's hearing her words. "I _know_ who you are. I _love_ who you are. Okay? What can I do so you will stop doubting that all the time and trust in me and my love?" Dani asks helplessly.

"I'm sorry." Santana apologizes quickly, yet brokenly. "I didn't mean for it to sound like I was questioning you, your love, or loyalty. I know." She says resolutely. "I _know_." She repeats. "It's just...Lima brings out the worst in me and it has me questioning everything." She shakes her head. "Not you. Never you. Just...it makes me wonder if I'll ever be rid of the person I was, the person it turns me into. You know?" She asks rhetorically. "I don't like what that town does to me or how insecure it makes me." She reveals.

"What if I give you something I've been saving for the right time, now?" Dani asks cryptically.

Santana just raises an eyebrow in question.

"It feels like the right time. I don't know, it might be too soon or whatever, but you can just tell me I'm out of my mind cray cray if it doesn't feel right to you too." Dani sort of explains. "But I'll have to move to get it." She shrugs.

Santana thinks about it for a minute, before answering. "I trust you." She shrugs. "If you want to do it now and think it's the right time, go ahead. But if it's just to make me feel better, I'm fine baby. I'll be okay." She assures.

"Okay. Just..." Dani says untangling their limbs and turning over to reach into the drawer in her bedside table.

She knows Santana doesn't have any qualms searching through anyone's stuff, but she also knows that this one drawer is hers, only hers, and it's safe from prying hands and eyes.

Dani turns back over, her right hand in a fist, and re-tangles their limbs, pressing their foreheads together. "Okay, before I do this, please just promise me that you'll talk to me no matter what? I need you to promise me that even if you think I've completely lost my mind or we're on completely different pages in completely different books, that you'll talk to me. Okay?" She asks, this time she's the one looking for reassurance.

"O-kay." Santana says slowly trying to figure out what's happening with her girlfriend.

Dani nods and opens her hand, presenting her surprise to Santana not saying a word, her face a mix of hope and fear. Santana's eyes widen in shock.

No words were needed though. Santana knows what Dani means. Still, she searches the blonde's eyes until she finds her truth. Both sets of eyes are glistening, as Santana scrambles to her side table drawer to find something within.

Dani starts breathing quicker, almost hyperventilating. _Santana promised she'd talk to her_. She has a few tears running down her cheeks as Santana turns back toward her.

"Hey, no." Santana says softly. "No, no, no." She wipes Dani's tears away, before showing Dani what she was getting out of the drawer with a smile.

Dani's eyes widen, before a huge smile covers her face and she smashes their lips together in a passionate embrace.

They break apart in joyous laughter, such a relief after the toll of their emotions that day.

They exchange the sparkling, glittering rings – both rings are double-banded platinum with a lotus blossom setting with a cushion cut three-carat pink sapphire for Dani and ruby for Santana with halo diamonds totaling three carats on the overlapping petals, the first set in red gold and the second set in platinum, and all around the bands.

They exchange the rings, placing the one they're holding on the other girl's left hand ring finger, with soft, loving kisses and smiles followed by slow, passionate lovemaking all night.


End file.
